Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Today we're taking a look at the VP2770-LED monitor from ViewSonic. It's a 27" monster monitor we first set eyes on at CES 2013. Usually as the inches increase so do the pixels and this is definitely the case for the VP2770-LED which sports a solid 2560x1440 pixels.

Specifications

The VP2770-LED is a well equipped monitor with a large list of features. There are several input connections, USB 2.0/3.0 connections, wide viewing angles and many more features you can see in the list below.

DIMENSIONS (WxHxD)

ERGONOMICS

Tilt

Forward 5º, Back 20º

Swivel

±60º

Height Adjust

0–5.9" / 0–150mm

Pivot

0–90º

WEIGHT

Weight

18.6 lb. / 8.5 kg

Gross

25.1 lb. / 11.4 kg

Net Without Stand

12.8 lb. / 5.8 kg

Build Quality

The stand which comes with the VP2770-LED is sturdy enough to support such a large screen. The stand can pivot, it allows variable heights and it provides tilt and rotate to position the monitor any way you would want. The only drawback is size. You will need to make sure you have plenty of space for this stand and its monitor.

On the bottom of the monitor on the left hand side are the display and audio connections. The monitor comes with VGA, DVI, HDMI and Display Port connections. It's nice to have so many options to choose from especially if you plan on toggling between multiple computers/devices.

On the bottom right side of the monitor you will find the power connection, the USB plug which connects to the computer and then two standard USB slots for connecting peripherals.

On the right hand side there are two additional USB slots which as you can see are USB 3.0 giving you easy access to plug in your ultra fast USB drives or any other peripherals that might take advantage of the extra speed.

On the front of the monitor in the bottom right corner you'll find all of the menu navigation buttons and the power button. These are touch sensitive buttons which give the monitor an elegant feel and they are very responsive.

Menu Features

The menu system is easy to navigate and provides all the features you would expect from a monitor of this caliber. To start off there are adjustments for contrast and brightness.

The next set of options is for toggling between the display's connected devices. Honestly though this menu option is probably not one you will use. Toggling between connected devices can be done quickly by pressing the number 2 touch sensitive button when there is no on screen display (OSD).

The VP2770-LED comes equipped with speakers and you can adjust the volume levels from here. To get here quickly you can press the touch sensitive down arrow when there is no OSD showing and it will bring you right to these settings.

ViewSonic has pre-calibrated this IPS display. The color accuracy will probably be good enough for most; however, if you plan to use this monitor for a job that requires precise accuracy of color then you will want to use the color adjustment screens while you calibrate your monitor for the most accurate colors.

The information screen will give you some of the basic information about the display. Not much to see here that wasn't listed in the specifications section.

The manual image adjust settings is where you will find options to customize the sharpness, contrast, response time, aspect ratio, overscan, eco mode and gamma settings. The response time options are: standard, advanced and ultra fast. We set ours to ultra fast.

The setup menu provides standard options to customize position, time out, etc. of the OSD.

Pressing the up arrow when no OSD is showing will give you a quick way to toggle between different settings you've saved and the factory settings.

Usage

As a hobby photographer I took advantage of the 27" display and higher resolution for editing images in Lightroom. The additional screen real estate made it easy to work with my raw images taken at higher resolutions. The VP2770-LED is a perfect solution for anyone that's in to photography.

As a software developer I spend quite a bit of time in Visual Studio and Eclipse. With a resolution of 2560x1440 I could comfortably place code side by side in a split screen setup. Normally this would cause an undesirable amount of horizontal scrolling. The VP2770-LED provides an additional 640 horizontal pixels (*coming from a 1920x1080 display) to work with which is just enough to comfortably code in a split screen environment. I always like to have 2 monitors while coding, but I found myself using the secondary monitor much less because of the extra screen real estate. I don't know if my desk would forgive me, but two of these beauties side by side would be any developer's dream!

I watched several shows and played many hours of games using the VP2770. The slower response time and refresh rate are not going to be appealing to any hard core gamer, but I won plenty of rounds all the same and enjoyed doing it on a 27" IPS display too. Watching movies or TV shows on the 27" is a pleasure. The slower response time and refresh rate don't give you the surreal feeling you get when watching a show on a 120Hz or 240Hz display; however, the 27 inches and higher resolution sure helps make up for that.

Conclusion

ViewSonic's VP2770-LED monitor is perfect for anyone involved in content creation. If you're in front of a computer frequently to code, work with images or any other form of content creation then this monitor is our top choice. If you're looking for a monitor purely for content consumption, the VP2770-LED is still a solid choice at this size, higher resolution and price point. The ViewSonic VP2770-LED's price point and features make it one of the best in its class. We've awarded the ViewSonic VP2770-LED our Editors Choice Award for its long list of features and superior build.